Esright Stove Bonfire Smokeless Wood Fire Pit,21.5 Inch Stainless Steel Outdoor Smokeless Firepit,Wood Burning Firebowl for Backyard, Silver

With the first fire we heard pops occasionally. It sounded like maybe the welds were popping as it heated up and expanded. Sure enough I noticed some of the tiny little spot welds that hold the top plate on had broken. 2 years later and the top plate has completely come loose. I am going to bolt it back on with L-brackets but this was not built or designed well. It should be able to expand with the heat and not come apart.

At first I thought " This is not Solo!" but after going out and buying a Solo Yukon and "Learning" what it takes to make a smokeless fire, I realized this works just fine. Actually since it's smaller than our Solo Yukon, we actually use it more since it eats less wood and we can do burns for a few hours and go to bed. Our other Solo Yukon is a beast. goes through almost 2-3 times more wood in a session and lasts for many many hours. its more of a commitment. Don't get me wrong i love both of them for different reasons. but the point is this works just fine. We wanted to return it at first. (rookie problems, not understanding how a smokeless fire pit worked) but then the seller offered me some cash back to just keep the thing. Because we ended up keeping it , we used it more ......and more......and more.... thats when we realized this thing is actually pretty good. We even throw a few bricks on each side of the rim and put a BBQ grill grate across it and cooked on it one day.. I'm glad the seller made us keep it. I like that this one is smaller for smaller fires and my Solo Yukon is bigger for bigger fires. I like having both. the price point on this the FANTASTIC compared to Solo.

We got the smaller size for use at a lake place getaway. Limited space on our lot so no room for a permanent fire pit with masonry around it etc. You could mount it inside a stone block ring, but leave room for air. That is the most important thing is air supply to the bottom. You can look into the center when it is going and it looks like someone is constantly blowing on the coals. Which is really what is happening with the natural draft. I added a couple stainless handles on the top for moving when it is cold. Light enough it can be moved to the front and chairs arranged around it. Heavy enough that after multiple nights of red hot fires, it is still solid. You can get a fire going with little more than some cardboard or a little piece of starter log. Once going we were able to put a log from a recently cut tree (less than six months) inside that was probably a foot in diameter. By the end of the evening it was reduced to ashes. Peeling the laser cutter film off the surfaces is a bit of a PITA but they save the labor cost of removing that. The laser cut edges can be dangerous is it slips while carrying it. Not because they have knife edges or points on the stainless, but because the laser cuts such a crisp edge that it can be sharp. Just get a good grip when moving it around. I paid $175 but I see that it is closer to a Solo stove in cost. For what I paid, I am very pleased.

So "deck safe" fire pits generally run for about $400, but we found this one for $210. While the instructions advise against putting on a wood deck, we got a fire pad to go under it, then raised it on bricks to about 8" above the deck surface. Under the center where the air vents are, I placed a couple of bricks with a double layer of pie tins to catch any embers that might fall out, which they did. While the bottom of the pit got pretty hot, the pad still felt cool and the immediate deck around didn't get any hotter than it would on a sunny day. Once the fire was going it was absolutely smokeless (we used SEASONED wood) and burned really well. Once it dies down to embers it's plenty hot for cooking brats or dogs and perfect for toasting marshmallows. We're really impressed with it. Now we just have to find a cover.UPDATE: After five pretty aggressive fires I removed the pit from its spot to inspect the deck surface for discoloration, and there's none (photo added). Also I have a couple of helpful hints, for cleanout I dump the (cold) pit upside down onto a Christmas tree stand tray. Any entrapped ashes come out easily with a leaf blower, which also cleans off the deck of any spilled ashes. The leg bolts tend to loosen a little from heat expansion, so to take the guesswork out of wrench size I marked the bottom of a leg with a sharpie, 9/16".

The media could not be loaded.  Hey so I don't normally write reviews on products, in fact this is my first time writing instead of just stars. Anyway I bought the smaller version and I was a little skeptical if it would work like the name competition, that I could not justify spending that kind of money on for a fire pit. OK first off this packaging was very good almost a little too good as the first steps are to remove a laser cut film all around the fire pit, it took a bit maybe 15 minutes but I can see how it keeps any scratches away. Next step was to put outer ring on and attach the four legs, it took a little bit to get one screw in but once my wife and I got it in-no problem! OK moment of truth-the first fire-ok this thing is designed really well as I only used one little piece of paper and some little twigs I had on my patio-air flow is great as the fire catches right away and starts billowing up. Next some bigger sticks-Still a tiny bit of smoke but nothing like I have done before now I start adding bigger pieces of dried firewood-maybe a total of 5 minutes and this baby is roaring---NO smoke in your face or eyes etc!! AWESOME SAUCE! My family says can we toast marshmallows-I'm like sure lets try it-Perfect. My wife and I were so impressed we think in the future we will buy the bigger version to put in our backyard and maybe build some stones around it. Great buy! I'm super glad I got it. It will turn a almost a bronze color due to the heat but that doesn't matter to me it still looks great! LOVE IT!

Personally I wasn't expecting much for the price. I just needed a fire pit for one event. However this one has held together pretty well for an entire season . The gauge of steel is surprisingly thick. My only concerns are the tack welds. They don't seem like they will hold very long.